First, let me address the obvious question:
Why Cheap and Sleazy?
Once upon a time I spent a year in a web design and development program, where we learned HTML, all about tables, frames and JavaScript ... and this site uses no frames, just a few tables, and very little JavaScript (unless you count that little bit of code that keeps my site from being framed in someone else's site) ... so, that's the cheap part.
As for the sleazy part, if you're here looking for pictures of nekkid folks, you'll just have to settle for my friend, Mr. Flash iPod!
A "Flash" iPod
This is about as sleazy as this site will get, thankyouverymuch -- unless you count some of my jokes, of course ...!
Also, Cheap and Sleazy refers to shortcuts, tips, tricks and ways to do things a bit differently for court reporting students and other Students o' Steno.
Fair warning: Some of the pictures on my site link to other sites. If you don't click them, you may miss something ...!
Finally, to paraphrase the words of Dave Barry:
"If anything you read on this website makes you want to sue me, I was joking. Ha! Ha!"
Thanks, Dave!
"Who Writes This Stuff?!?"
Why, I do, of course ...!
My name is Glen Warner ('gdw' on a forum or two), and I am -- well, was -- a court reporting student at the (now closed) Seattle branch of the Court Reporting Institute ... and I have recently become a CR student again at the only remaining CR school in my home state: Green River Community College, where I am working on passing all 12 (yes, that's right: twelve -- at 98%!) of the required tests to get to the next speed (80).
As for how this site came to be, during a few bouts of insomnia, I wrote a couple documents I thought my fellow CR students might find of use: A guide to computers, and a guide to buying steno machines, laptops, and CAT software. I used to hand these out to my fellow students at CRI as Word documents, but eventually decided to put that year long Web Design and Development program I went through to some use, and put them on the web.
And every once in a while, I do some updating ... but first, if this is your first visit to my (cheap and sleazy) abode, you should check out what's here.
I also, on occasion, solicit articles from other writers! If you have a Stenograph Fusion and don't mind sharing your thoughts with the readers of ol' cheap and sleazy, send me an e-mail! I'd like a review that's a bit more substantial than the quick look I provided in my Technolust piece ... and that can only come from someone that has one, and has used it for a while!
Join me ... on CSR Nation!
(Well ... when it comes back online!)
23AUG10 Update
Finally ....!
Yes, that's right ... it's *finally* done!
I'm talking about the older version of Stephen Shastay's book-in-progress, "The Plateau" ... but this time, instead of a mere six chapters, this one weighs in at a hefty 19 chapters ... and a whopping 77 pages!
Chapter 19 of the Old Plateau
Steve has, as you might guess, a few exercises that require you to use the Speed Teacher. If you're on Windows 7, you should follow these instructions for installing digitalCAT to install the Speed Teacher; otherwise, it won't work ... and for those of you who missed "Hasta la Vista Thursday" (as discussed way down there in the 01NOV09 Update), these instructions will show you how to install digitalCAT in Vista ... though I'm sure I don't have to tell you that you'll be installing the Speed Teaher, right? Good!
What? You want a link? Sure ...!
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net/filez/the_plateau_older.pdf
(I knew I had forgotten something ...!)
Tech Support Blues
So, how many of you have ever felt like doing (or actually did!) something like this while on the phone with Tech Support?
Tech Support Frustration!!
Well, I hate to admit it, but I have often felt that way as well ... despite having done a stint as a telephone tech support guy in support of Windows 95, Net Meeting 1.0, Internet Explorer versions 3 through 5, and PageMaker 4 through 6.0 (same company, different projects, thanks to my "bilingual" skills (Mac and Windows, that is).
That clip is dedicated to those of you who spent far too much time this weekend talking to tech support, like, say, a certain young woman in Alabama (she knows who she is -- I hope!)!
The clip comes to us courtesy of my favorite (and canceled!) sitcom, "Better Off Ted." While ABC did postpone the final two episodes because of a football game, at least they didn't screw the audience over like they did with "Eastwick," where they not only canceled the series and didn't air the two of the final episodes (episodes 11 and 13), they aired the last few episodes in the wrong order! One week, four of the show's characters were in dire straits: Two were paralyzed in the basment of a rather crazy woman, while another was being chased by an ax-weieding maniac, and the other discovered that her healing ability was aging her prematurely ... and then, the next episode, all four were walking around like nothing ever happened!
I hate when crap like that happens, as you might guess ... but I did some Googling, and I found this, and this.
I guess Better Off Ted got some good closure, considering.
And don't get me started on the "Sarah Connor Chronicles!"
16AUG10 Update
"Big Oops" Department
A few days back when I was a bit under the weather, I got another e-mail from "Deep Blue," with a few answers to some of my other questions. I have placed those questions and answers within Deep Blue's comments under the 18JUL10 update.
14AUG10 Update
The Art of the Deal: IT Writer Update
I got an interesting e-mail from the ContactUs address over at Infinitytraditional.com the other day. Seems they want -- well, let me do some copyin' and pastin':
Dear Mr. Warner,
Not too long ago, and much to our surprise, it came to our attention that pictures of our writer and the release of some key information about our product had somehow made it to your site. We spent some time internally discussing the pros and cons of the early viewing of this product and have come to the conclusion that while early, it is not the end of our release plans.
We know about you, your history, your schooling, and at least one of our people knows you personally. Based on those facts we thought you might be interested in a proposal we have for you.
We would like to grant you the first and exclusive interview (e-mail based only) for the I.T. product. We would like you to put together a list of up to 25 questions and submit them to us for our team to answer. We only ask that you gather those questions from the court reporting community (i.e., your members, Depoman.com members, Facebook, etc.).
We would like you to act as the liaison by answering questions about the writer and providing them to the court reporting community. We feel that it would provide additional visibility for you and your site, in addition to the increase in credibility you would have for breaking the news story about the reporting industry. For us it provides an opportunity to put out very accurate and technically specific information to the public to clarify a few mistakes contained in your story. We will even go a step further and offer up an exclusive phone interview with the president of our company at a future time and place.
The only other requirement that we have is that you publish the story in conjunction with our public announcement of who we are and the details of when the writer will be released into the market. Of course, you will need to tell people that they are welcomed and encouraged to submit questions to you. These would need to be compiled and submitted to us by August 31st. You are free to ask any question you like, but we will tell you upfront that you do not need to ask who we are; we will tell you that with our public release announcement, along with what the writers will cost. We felt that this was a better route than closing off access to the site until we were ready to go public.
If you feel it is helpful, your users may register on our site, and as soon as we go live, we will send all of them an e-mail saying hello and directing them to cheapandsleazy.net for an exclusive interview conducted by users and moderated by you, Mr. Warner.
If you are interested, please respond to the e-mail. If not, we appreciate your time reviewing our proposal.
The I.T. Team
As you might guess, I thought this was a great idea -- but I made a counter-offer: I would do as requested, if they arranged a demo at my school once the writer has been officially announced/released ... and I specified that I wanted my fellow students to be able to connect their laptops to the writer, and use their own CAT software with it, because testing a writer with someone else's laptop and someone else's dictionary is ... well, I might have made allusions to kissing one's sister, but that's neither here nor there. The important thing is, they agreed to my terms!
I will be collecting those 25 questions -- less those of the "Who are those guys, anyway?!" variety -- over in the "New Writer Alert ...! thread I started over on Depoman.com (for the impatient-types, click the link for page 5). If you're not a member there and you have a question you want answered, sign up for an account, and ask away!
"No Retreat, No Surrender," Act II
As you might remember in what I can now call Act I of No Retreat, No Surrender (see the 04MAY10 update), court reporter Susan DeMichelle was fighting a battle against a Florida attorney, to recover the $480 he not only stiffed her for, but counter-sued her (to the tune of $5,000) to avoid paying!
Well, Susan has been busy of late, and she finally has some good news: She has a court date, where she will physically appear in a Tampa, FL court ... and that date is October 25th.
If you have been remiss in keeping up with Susan's recovery efforts, you really need to check out her blog.
At last count, Susan's $480 had ballooned up to $13,000 to cover her various expenses.
Go get 'em, Susan!
25JUL10 Update
Not-Quite-Annual-Trimming-of-the-Main-Page
You've probably noticed by now that this page on ol' Cheap and Sleazy has become ... smaller!
If so, that's because it was way, *way* past time for the annual Trimming of the Main Page frestival!
For those of you who are new to ol' Cheap and Sleazy, that's when I take most of the main page's content and move it to an archive page ... so if you're looking for something that was here the last time you visited (assuming, of course, that that was within the last week or so), try this page.
Now, for today's update:
Technology Update
If you have been reading ol' Cheap and Sleazy for a while, you might recall my Tale o' Woe about my MacBook Pro's dead-keyboard-and-trackpad issue ... and if you've been reading some of my posts on the various forums I frequent, you might have read somewhere that I had begun swearing at my Mac almost daily thanks to that issue (not to mention the "Apple's Firmware Update Killed My Superdrive" issue, which means that when I put a blank CD or DVD into the drive, my Mac would just ... spit it back out! Made it hard to do any backups, that's for sure).
Well, I have a fix for those issues now. It's called a new MacBook Pro!
Even better, I took advantage of Apple's educational discount (being a starving student and all) and got $100 off the price of the 15" model, *and* a $200 rebate on a $200 iPod Touch ... and yes, I have a copy of iSteno on it!
I even bit the bullet and purchased the iPhone version of Nanosaur 2:
Nanosaur 2 Screenshot
In this game, you control a pterodactyl (that flying dinosaur there). On my Mac, you use keys to control the movement. On the iPod (and the iPhone and the iPad), you move the iDevice this way and that to control the movement of your nanosaur.
It's definitely different, that's for sure ...!
As for my old Mac, it is going to be taking over the duties of my old (and I do mean "OLD") Dell laptop: That's right: I have removed a lot of the crap from the hard drive and put VMWare Fusion on my old Mac, and am now running digitalCAT on it!
Even better, I plan on using this to help me finish my article on running CATs on Macs, which has been pretty quiet since ... well, since I stopped attending CRI! I can now use the old Mac as a test bed to test other methods of Windows emulation ... and I plan on upgrading my new Mac's hard drive from it's 320 GB hard drive to, say, 750GB (or, if I'm lucky, 1TB!!), and will move VMWare Fusion to the new Mac, and send the old to my ex-wife (shhh! It's a surprise!!).
I call that "Glenimony," by the way.
Drinkin' and Drivin'
Yes, that's right ... I nearly killed myself the other day doing a bit of Drinkin' and Drivin'.
No, I wasn't drunk ... in fact, I was drinking from a bottle of water I filled up before I left school.
The problem is, while taking a gulp of water from that nice, cool bottle on a rather warm day, I hit a pothole. That caused water to go down the wrong pipe, which caused a coughing fit!
I couldn't stop coughing. It came to me that I should put the bottle down and park to clear my airway ... and the next thing I know, the bottle is no longer in my hands, having fallen to the floor of the car -- after first depositing its contents in my lap along the way ... and worse, I was in the wrong lane, heading straight for a truck!!
Somehow, I had stopped coughing, so I pulled over into my lane, and parked the car for a bit to assess my situation: Wet car seat, wet pants, and worse, my bottle of water was empty!
Then I replayed the last few moments of what just happened in my mind, and I think I must've blacked out for a second -- just long enough to let myself relax and clear my airway so I could breathe again.
*Whew!*
I've either got my own personal guardian angel ...
Castiel, one of the Angels on "Supernatural"
... or *SOMEBODY* knew what was waiting for me in my In box when I got home ... which was a message from somebody "In the Know" about the new IT writer!
So first, a BIG THANKS to whoever or whatever it was that allowed me to survive my Drinkin' and Drivin' blunder ... and another BIG THANKS to my new anonymous source (whom I will call "Deep Blue") for his/her input.
And, speaking of which, scroll down to the bottom of the 18JUL10 Update ... or better yet, click here.
18JUL10 Update
New Writer Alert ....?!
I recently received an e-mail from a (relatively) new reporter and long time reader of ol' Cheap and Sleazy whom I will call "Harold;" (and he knows why!). Harold told me a fascinating tale about how he was attending his first CR convention in Texas, and was ready to pull the trigger and buy himself a new writer:
I spent time at every vendor's booth: Stenograph, Eclipse, Gemini, and Lightspeed. And I tried every machine I could touch. I adjusted and fiddled and tweaked and pondered what machine would fit my personal "lust," but I couldn't decide. I felt I should sleep on it and come back Saturday and make the biggest purchase of my new career.
I was in the exhibit hall Saturday afternoon ready to make my purchase, and I happened to be standing near Stenograph's booth, when somebody mentioned something new was about to come out. They mentioned a website called "Infinitytraditional.com" which I had never heard about, hadn't read about, and hadn't seen on your site, but what they were talking about sounded like a new writer to me.
As you might guess, that got the ol' antennas standing up again --
"Wait a minute -- did you say New Writer?!"
-- so I stopped reading right there and went to the site, and was faced with a login page! :o(
I tried a couple things half-heartedly, but no joy, so I went back to "Harold's" letter.
At this point what is a guy supposed to do? Now I had a major decision to make: buy now or figure out what they were talking about. Being a curious fellow, I decided I'd go home and check it out before I spent that much money. I didn't want to spend thousands of dollars and have a newer, better writer come out right after such an important purchase.
When I first went to the Infinitytraditional.com site, it just had an "under construction" logo on it, so I thought I would just keep checking back. And, then, about a month ago, it changed, and now there was a password when you go to the site, just like you will see it now. And while I am not a computer dunce, by any means, I am not a computer genius, so I had no idea how to break a password. I tried basic stuff: Admin, administrator, webmaster, et cetera, with and without basic passwords. I had no idea how to access the site, so I was stuck again.
Yes, that's pretty much what I did, with the same results! But "Harold" had another brainstorm:
Just last Monday I had to buy a new wireless router for my house, and the setup user password for that was “admin” and “1234” which I hadn't tried that combination yet. I thought I'd give the Infinitytraditional.com site one last try. And lo and behold, IT WORKED!
JACKPOT!!
Black Infinity Traditional Court With Upright LCD
"Harold" continues:
Anyway this thing looks absolutely incredible. It is, by far, smaller, lighter, and the site says it's more adjustable than anything else on the market. If you look at the gallery, you can see it compared to other writers: Diamante, Passport, and 8000LX. So unless this is some big hoax, I am super excited and want one badly, anybody willing to step outside of the box has my business.
Wow, thanks for that e-mail, "Harold!"
My first impressions are it looks a lot like that Continental Diamante (see the 19JUN10 Update), which suggested a French or Canadian company is behind Infinity Traditional ... so I put Geek Tools' WhoIs tool to use, and sure enough, all the street addresses point to Toronto.
I sent a quick e-mail to Rachel Rosenberg, web meistress of the now missing-in-action Word Goddess.com website to see if she has heard anything, but have yet to hear back (though in Rachel's defense, I literally *just* sent that e-mail about a minute ago as I write this).
I also asked about the status of her website! Hope she's just doing a site redesign or something.
So. Back to that new writer. Here are the specs:
• Weight: 3.5 pounds
• 8 GB of onboard storage
• Four electronic backups: Three internal memory cards at 4GB each, expandable to 32GB, plus one non-upgradeable internal memory module (presumably 8GB; page is not clear)
• 7-inch touch screen (LCD)
• Tiltable and twistable LCD screen: Folds completely forward to cover the keys, and completely backwards if necessary to place the writer under a desk, and can twist up to 15 degrees in either direction; great to elminate glare.
Black IT Court with LCD Folded Backwards
• Includes Auto Dim - Auto Brighten technology
• Stroke depth goes from 2.5mm to over 20mm with 15 unique positions. "This range is far larger than any other writer."
• Tension adjustment goes from the ultra-light touch to the heaviest touch.
• Ten unique colors
• "All I.T. writers have our patent pending baseline tool and automatic key adjustment algorithms, giving the I.T. the most advanced and accurate writing possible, eliminating stacking, dragging, and dropping to the greatest degree ever realized.
• Completely upgradeable: Start with the student version (no LCD, less memory, etc.) and upgrade piece by pice to the fully professional model.
If all student writers were upgradeable to professional levels like the I.T. writer appears to be, I would recommend that students buy student writers in a nanosecond.
"How Small Is It?"
It's so small, that even the mice are hunchbacked!
(*crickets*)
(Boy, tough room!)
Here ya go:
IT vs. the Stentura 8000
Here's the IT in the small sachel bag it comes with:
IT in Sachel Bag
Here's the sachel bag the IT comes with, this time with an 8000LX in it:
8000LX in IT Sachel Bag
Alas, there is no price listed, just a dollar sign with a few X's -- like so: $XXX.xx
If the number of X's are accurate, we're talking about $999.99 at the most -- BUT that price would most likely be for the bare-bones model.
This one will be worth keeping an eye on!
Were You one of the IT Beta Testers?
If you're not under a non-disclosure agreement or something, do not hesitate to shoot me an e-mail! Your impressions would be a valuable addition to this update!
.
New Writer Update
"Deep Blue" expressed some surprise at seeing the pictures of the writer on ol' Cheap and Sleazy. My anonymous source identified themselves as one of the early testers of the writer, and said they all had to sign strict NDAs (that's "Non-Disclosure Agreement" for those of you who don't live in states with lots of high tech companies, where the term is heard often in depositions). S/he assumed everyone had signed a similar NDA; hence the surprise.
That said, Deep Blue wanted to clear up a few points about the I.T. writer:
I have seen, touched, adjusted, and used the I.T. writer. It is indescribable. The touch is just right. I don't feel like I am pounding on the keys or that it is too light that I am going to float away. But of course that is totally customizable.
The size is really as pictured. It is small enough to fit into the Coach purse that is shown. However, even though it is small, the keys are the same size that they have always been! The machine has lost that clunky size that is apparently unnecessary. And it is LIGHT and works with my regular tripod!!
Even though all of that seems to be great, that is not even the best part of this writer. It's the intelligence and adjustability part.
When you first get the writer you put it though a configuration tool that allows you to set a baseline (a kind of standard of how you as an individual write). This gives the writer the ability to then adapt to your writing style as part of its programming. So if you are weak on, say, your final G, the writer adapts to that without you needing to lift the lid and try and figure out where to make the adjustment and how much to adjust and then do it all over again until you get it right. And if the writer misses something small, then you can go manually adjust it via the electronic key interface tools, on the outside of the writer or on the screen, and make very slight adjustments. There are no physical tools required, no Allen wrenches or screwdrivers or whatever other stupid things I have had to carry in my bag and constantly lose amongst the exhibit stickers. It cleans up writing so well that I am confident I will pass the CRR with it.
You are going to love the screen that is on this writer. The quality and contrast and the way you see things is better than any writer I have seen in over 15 years, and it’s just controlled with your finger or back of you pen. You don’t even need to have a stylus or anything like that -- which I always lose anyway.
In terms of pricing, I have not been told a specific price, but I was told it would be highly competitive with the other writers on the market.
And I assure you, this is not a Canadian company with this writer.
As you might guess, I sent an answer to Deep Blue pretty quickly. I asked about noise level, the configuration tool, the display, connectivity methods, communications protocols (you know, how the writer talks to your CAT software) and the all-important, will the writer be at the convention in Chicago next month!
The I.T. is really a very quiet writer. I think it is quieter than my current or past writers. It's really nice to have something so quiet.
Excellent! Any idea what sort of mechanics are under the hood? -- that is, have you seen the mechanics/electronics? ... and how does that compare with other writers you've owned/used?
Mechanics: It has arms and keys but as far as what is under the hood, it doesn’t open so I can’t speak to that.
I was told at one point that is has four or five processors in it, but I can’t tell you too much more sorry.
The configuration tool that I mentioned that "learns" your writing style to adjust your writer settings can be done either on the writer, if you get the one with the screen, or done on a PC. I guess it would depend on your needs, but they seem to have thought that through already.
About how long does the software take to learn one's style?
In terms of learning a style, once you go through the config tool, about one to two hours plus the initial writing session. I would say it is pretty well set. I don’t think it takes long at all. Very fast.
As you might guess, I was curious about the display, and, after chatting with Chris Mitchell, my Mac Pusher at the Seattle branch of RePC about how he finally broke down and bought himself an iPhone and couldn't see the display in direct sunlight, I asked Deep Blue if the I.T. writer had similar problems:
And as far as the writer's screen, I noticed that the screen does auto dim or get brighter depending on the room's conditions.
I have been in some conference rooms with poor lighting and the screen was just fine. I have yet to use it in direct sunlight for an outdoor dep but I would imagine the screen would be fine and adjust accordingly.
I asked, Do you still have the writer? The whole sunlight thing should be an easy test!
The screen is comparable to my laptop in direct sunlight. It’s readable, but with the way the screen tilts and twists. They have given you the ability to move it to the optimum angle, unlike my laptop which I have to physically shift. I don’t think they ever intended the machine to be used on a beach. The mini LCD looks great, however.
The writer does connect with serial, USB, or BT and all were included. I liked having all those options available to me. And when I tried it, I used it with both CASE and Eclipse and did not have any problems. I was told that it will work on every CAT software.
Sounds good! What about that price?!
As far as the price goes, I have not been told what the price will be when they release it. (I wish I knew!)
Drats ....!
I asked, Did you test all of the connection options? Deep Blue answered:
Yes, all of the options worked.
I did test the serial with a usb to serial converter however since I don’t have any serial ports.
I had speculated that the company was based in Canada, since that's where the WhoIs info pointed me to, but s/he dispelled that idea in the first message. This time out, s/he wrote:
I don't think they were trying to misdirect people with their site. I think it's just simply in the Alpha and Beta testing stages so it is still very private. I haven't told them that I saw it on your site. I am sure they will figure it out though. I'm still kind of surprised someone told you about it given our NDAs.
As for Chicago, well .....
I don't know if they are going to unveil it at the annual convention. Based on what I last heard, it didn't sound like it, but then again, I wasn't told anything directly.
Not entirely bad news: They might be at the convention, but it's iffy. So, if you happen to be going to Chicago next month and you have a camera or two, look for the I.T. Writer! More pictures are always Good!
Oh, and if you can get the impressions of others testing the writer as well (not to mention your thoughts about your own hands-on time with the writer), so much the better!
Thanks!
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